This invention relates to method and apparatus for severing hose and like tubular articles which contain a reinforcement therein, such as one or more layers of wire braid, which normally create difficult problems in cleanly severing the hose into desired lengths.
A customary method utilized in the past for severing reinforced tubular articles into desired lengths has been to advance the tubular article the desired distance through a split fixture, stop the article at the desired position, and then swing a rotating cutter blade down into and through the tubular article at the split in the fixture thereby severing the hose. In addition to this type of swing cutter, relatively large diameter hoses have been severed by using a stationary rotating blade with the operator manually moving the hose through the blade while grasping the hose on either side of the blade with his hands. In either case, the hose remains essentially linearly oriented or sometimes fixed in a bent configuration while the cut is being made.
While the prior art cutting methods have been more or less satisfactory for severing non-reinforced articles, or articles reinforced with textile or other polymeric materials offering little resistance to cutting, these methods have been found to be faulty particularly with respect to severing of tubular elastomeric materials reinforced with high modulus low elongation material such as wire. The resultant cuts have not been perfectly straight in all instances and there has been a tendency during the cutting process for the tubular article to buckle as a result of the resistance offered the cutting blade by the portion of the reinforcement already severed.
It is a primary objective of the subject invention to provide method and apparatus for severing reinforced polymeric tubular articles whereby a very smooth and perpendicular cut is provided, without buckling, which is accomplished with repeated uniformity of result, and which is rapid in operation.